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Are Knights hot or cold?

Sarnia Sting defenceman Joshua Chapman slams London Knights forward Gemel Smith into the boards during their OHL game at Budweiser Gardens on Friday night. The Knights won 8-1. (DEREK RUTTAN, The London Free Press)

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But when the red-hot feeling is there for a hockey team, it looks like they’re shooting at a soccer goal.

The London Knights’ offence was supposed to make up for the pillars on defence — Scott Harrington, Olli Maatta, Tommy Hughes — they lost to the pro ranks this season.

Instead, their gunners have bounced back and forth between mini-fridge and soccer goal.

Their game against the Sarnia Sting Friday night at Budweiser Gardens provided the perfect example.

The Knights had 20 shots in the first period, which ended scoreless. That meant, in seven periods over the past three games, London had taken 119 shots and scored just two goals.

Try to find that shooting percentage with a microscope.

Then, in the second period, they scored six goals on 21 shots to stomp on a nail-biter.

Chris Tierney and Max Domi finished off a shorthanded, four-pass 2-on-0 effort that was as gorgeous as it gets.

So how can a team look so snakebit one period, then world-beater the next?

The Knights played without reliable world junior centre Bo Horvat, who was a surprise scratch after practising this week and feeling encouraged and optimistic about his chances to suit up after suffering a “lower-body injury” last Sunday in Mississauga.

Horvat said the Knights picked up some things on video early in the week after losing five of six games and scoring just 15 goals over that stretch.

One of the biggies was not getting enough traffic in front of the net. The shots have been mostly low and hard from the point, but the Knights weren’t crashing the crease and re-directing pucks.

Ryan Rupert opened the scoring by going to the net and tipping a puck home past Sting goalie Brodie Barrick.

Nikita Zadorov gave London an important insurance goal by launching a shot from the point through a crowd in front.

The Knights aren’t going to score on skill alone. They’re not going to beat anybody just by showing up.

The Knights have to do the things that will lead to success, and by the end of March, they must have one of the most dangerous offences in the league.

Right now, it is light years behind Guelph and Erie and on par with Sault Ste. Marie.

London head coach Dale Hunter has recognized the need to stop making goalies look great.

He brought in shooting and skills coach Tim Turk to help out at practice.

The Hunters have never been afraid or too proud to ask for assistance and look outside their own large coaching staff for some tips.

Before teams start stringing together wins, they have to do the things that are going to lead toward it.

The Knights showed signs of it against the Sting.

They should be able to follow that up against Kitchener on Saturday night.

But it has to be infectious and carry on to next week’s road trip to North Bay, Sudbury and Barrie.

If they have another stinker of a trip like the one through Guelph, Saginaw and Sault Ste. Marie post-trade deadline, they’re back to square one again.

With Zach Bell serving the second of a five-game suspension, the Knights dressed an extra forward — Tristen Elie — and only five defencemen, figuring Brett Welychka would help out when necessary.

It’s a risky manoeuvre in case of injury, but so is letting a lower-tier team feel good about itself after a scoreless first period.